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Copy Protected CD makers lose battle. Was it inevitable? Do you consider this good news?
posted by onegoodmove at 11:35 PM PST - 17 comments

Survivor III Finale Flawed. If there's any doubt still that this show is a complete waste of time, check out this "news" tidbit that CBS is doing a good job of squashing. Turns out the ending was flawed; the other finalists have now been paid handsomely to behave.
posted by Fofer at 11:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Enron's historical precidents. This L.A. Times article discusses the historical precidents to the Enron debacle. My favorite (among lots of good stuff):

"Like Enron, ITT was a big campaign contributor. But Geneen's idea of how to use political influence made Lay and associates look like choir boys. In 1970, the company offered Republicans $1 million and consulted heavily with the Nixon White House and the CIA when Chile's new socialist president, Salvador Allende, threatened to seize the ITT-owned Chilean Telephone Co. Allende was overthrown with U.S. aid."
posted by electro at 10:58 PM PST - 9 comments

Daniel Pearl's widow speaks out. "Revenge would be easy, but it is far more valuable in my opinion to address this problem of terrorism with enough honesty to question our own responsibility as nations and as individuals for the rise of terrorism." (via the indispensable rc3.org)
posted by jjg at 10:12 PM PST - 12 comments

What's down, Doc?
Animation genius Chuck Jones has died of conjestive heart failure.
Has any other creative-type-person brought more joy and laughter to the last three-or-four generations?
At least his website had already started paying tribute to him while he could still see it (click on "Letters from the Heart", optional Flash).
posted by wendell at 7:37 PM PST - 31 comments

Can you be outwitted by a goldfish? Forgot the attention span debate: follow the link and try to figure out the card trick. (Via PhotoDude).
posted by maudlin at 6:59 PM PST - 34 comments

It's official, streaming music is now 14 cents per song and retroactive to 1998. An update to an earlier thread, this new ruling would add $150,000 in monthly royalty fees to live365, and probably kill whatever streaming radio sites are currently out there. Of course broadcasting via AM/FM is half price, so maybe pirate radio stations will grow more popular.
posted by mathowie at 5:55 PM PST - 59 comments

Enron had a fake trading room on the 6th floor. [via D] This whole Enron thing is really turning into something. First the WH, then Cheney is being sued, now smoke and mirrors; I'm telling you, Enron is at a theatre near you before 2006.
posted by Why at 4:40 PM PST - 13 comments

Gutton Bowl was disgusting, obnoxious, incredible. A follow-up from this thread, and perfect Friday fodder. No one who I talked to around the water cooler who saw this last night could stop talking about it. So why isn't it being discussed here?
posted by tsarfan at 4:02 PM PST - 38 comments

The Internet: breeding ground for goldfish-like attention spans.

...

The Internet: breeding ground for goldfish-like attention spans.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 2:56 PM PST - 23 comments

"The concept of anarchism has always appealed to me" says a senior ranking London Police Commissioner on Urban 75 (posting as 'Brian the Commander'). "Say nothing on the web you wouldn't say on the office notice board" runs the popular wisdom, and Scotland Yard is set to call him to heel. But which serves us best - Dixon of Dock Green, slavishly following Police Federation convention, or Descartes of Dock Green, letting it all hang out?
posted by RichLyon at 1:07 PM PST - 4 comments

Southern California just had a good shake up An earthquake measuring 5.2 just hit there. Anybody have anymore details?
posted by Davezilla at 11:49 AM PST - 24 comments

Afghanistan looks at itself:

Q: So if I brought you free films but they weren't about fighting, would you show them?
A: No.

A moving photo-essay on rebuilding Afghanistan's media sources.
posted by modge at 11:31 AM PST - 5 comments

What can The White Rose teach us today? 59 years ago..."February 22, 1943, 9am... three students from the University of Munich are brought to trial for treason. The trial lasts until 1 pm and by 5 o’clock all are dead...Why are their voices silenced? And how many more innocent people will have to die before they are heard?" Their executioners maintained "It was not a time for tackling theoretical problems, but rather for grasping the sword , yet [they] sowed doubt among our youth. [They] nourished doubt instead of dispelling it..."

In memory of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willie Graf, Kurt Huber, and untold others whose terrible crime has been to speak truth to power.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 11:11 AM PST - 21 comments

Detailed instructions on how to give birth to the reincarnation of Dr Hans Fink of Portland Oregon. Or Mother Teresa. Or Lady Diana. Or anybody else you feel like. Isn't modern technology something?
posted by signal at 11:06 AM PST - 2 comments

In California, it's now legal for criminals to profit from the sale of stories related to their crimes. Yesterday the CA Supreme Court unanimously struck down the 16 year-old Son of Sam law. The test case involved the movie rights to the story of the man who kidnapped Frank Sinatra, Jr. Victims are angry, but others say that the law represented a direct conflict with free speech, and could have been used to suppress anti-government voices. (more inside)
posted by bingo at 10:54 AM PST - 15 comments

Russians Challenging Hughes Skating Gold Russian Olympic officials lodged an official protest, demanding that Olympic Silver Medalist Irina Slutskaya be awarded a gold medal, accusing the ladies figure skating judges of being biased against the russian skater. This is the biggest batch of sour grapes I have ever seen in sports.
posted by Lanternjmk at 10:43 AM PST - 45 comments

Iran Online. Can the opening of a countires 'cyber-borders' contribute to the liberalisation (small 'l') of the society? Iran has a rapidly increasing population, as well as a rapidly increasing online percentage, they have sports sites (they seem to like soccer), portals and the 'IranMania' search engine. Can un-censored access to the internet help build tolerance?
posted by asok at 10:20 AM PST - 5 comments

Thousands of Women Killed for "Family Honor" This story was done by the National Geographic News...the photo gallery was heartwrenching. Don't go there if you just ate.
posted by bunnyfire at 9:33 AM PST - 48 comments

State of the Validation 2002. Off the 506 W3C members, only 18 (3.6%) have sites that validate with the W3C validator as either HTML or XHTML! 141 members' sites have definite markup errors. 342 members' sites don't even include the DTD, therefore they can not be tested. [via the big orange Z.]
posted by riffola at 9:32 AM PST - 26 comments

Are we sending our $300 rebate checks right back this year? According to MIT economist and New York Times writer Paul Krugman, line 47 of the 2001 1040 will be designed to do just that. NYTimes.com so you know the drill u:metafilter p:metafilter.
posted by McBain at 9:02 AM PST - 40 comments

lego mecha a friend just sent me this site showcasing some lego mecha. pretty incredible stuff! be sure to check out the links esp. the hall of fame :)
posted by kliuless at 9:01 AM PST - 8 comments

Challenging the Goliath of Environmentalism This piece is a brief chronicle of the (mis)adventures of a "green" whose only sin is optimism. Are the environmentalists too doomsday-ish for their own good? Is technology the problem, or part of the solution? Link via The Daily Grail.
posted by yesster at 8:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Jimmy Carter Rips Bush on 'Axis' Label The former President called Bush's statement overly simplistic and counterproductive and also said I think it will take years before we can repair the damage done by that statement. Leave it to Jimmy to tell the truth.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 8:24 AM PST - 66 comments

Sodomy laws repealed in Massachusetts Equal laws no matter what 'things' you're doing? The sky is going to fall? You decide.
posted by LinemanBear at 7:55 AM PST - 27 comments

Figures show shark attacks down in 2001. Before September 11, it was the "Season of the Shark." Perhaps we can forgive the newscasters their excess in this matter. Or may be it's another reason to make sure you get your news from multiple sources and different media--now, more than ever.
posted by piskycritters at 6:35 AM PST - 10 comments

weapons of teeny boo-boos? and now for something completely different. Weapons of mass destruction are so twentieth century.....
posted by johnnyboy at 5:57 AM PST - 3 comments

give war a chance an influential Palestinian writer in a Palestine paper says that war makes more sense than negotiating for a peaceful resolution. Perhaps he ought to send his son into the struggle as a suicide bomber
posted by Postroad at 5:09 AM PST - 33 comments

Moment of simplicity A selection of chilled out music and images
posted by Tarrama at 3:44 AM PST - 12 comments

Click here for martyrdom (In Arabic though) The Financial Times reports volunteers are invited by Ansar-e-Hizbollah, Iran's radical Islamic shock-troops, to register by internet for worldwide suicide attacks in the event of a US military strike.
posted by brettski at 2:11 AM PST - 4 comments

Free Web Building Tutorials. This site seems like a great resource for people wanting learn about making their own website. My brain hurts already and I'm on "How does the WWW work?". Anyone else have good educational sites for a novice Webmaster?
posted by sadie01221975 at 2:05 AM PST - 13 comments

Today is slacker day, at least in the UK. Rest up and do nothing all day. As Spaced's Simon Pegg says on the site: "How can you possibly comprehend the value of your own hectic endeavour if you don't occasionally put your feet up and experience a state of complete calm. So, when Slacker Day comes around, stop Yanging around and Yin out for a bit. You'll feel better."
posted by viama at 1:16 AM PST - 13 comments